Volume 2, Issue 3.

January 2018

Special Edition Newsletter

International Holocaust Remembrance Day: January 27, 2018

Why We Remember:

For almost 10 years, between 1933 and 1945, the

world watched in horror as the rise of violent fas-

cism spread throughout Europe. The eruption of a

second world war consumed nearly every country

in Europe, and eventually spread to the United

States and South East Asia. As war devastated Eu-

rope, innocent Jews, Roma, gay and lesbian men

and women, and others were being deported, sent

to ghettos and concentration camps and eventual-

ly raped, tortured, and killed.

The international community adopted the phrase,

“never forget” when remembering the genocide

during WWII. We, as a collective, must never for-

get how many died, how many women were raped

and abused, how many people were tortured, ex-

perimented on and mutilated, we must never for-

get the intolerance and hatred and the political

and economic circumstances that led to Hitler’s

rise in power. We must never be allowed to forget the horrors of WWII. If we allow ourselves

the luxury of not remembering these atrocities, we will be turning a blind eye to other’s suffer-

ings, other genocides, other injustices in the world. “Never forget” is a promise to work toward

a future that does not include genocide, ethnic cleansing, and violations of human rights and

human dignity.

We as a human right’s center pride ourselves on this mission to make our shared world a bet-

ter and more just place for everyone. We have vowed to never turn our backs to human suffer-

ing and to work toward educating future generations of human rights activists.

This special edition of our newsletter memorializes the lives that were lost during the Holo-

caust and other genocides and honors those who survived.

For additional resources on the Holocaust and other genocides, visit the United States Holo-

caust Memorial Museum website.

Photos courtesy of the United States Holocaust Memori-al Museum

1933-1945

January 30, 1933: President Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany.

March 20, 1933: The Schutzstaffel (SS) opens

the Dachau concentration camp outside of Munich. September 15, 1935: The

Nuremberg Race Laws (anti-

Semitic laws) are introduced. November 9/10 1938: Kristallnacht (nationwide

pogrom in Germany). September 1, 1939: Germa-ny invades Poland, start-ing World War II in Europe. July 6, 1941: (mobile

killing units) shoot nearly 3,000 Jews at the Seventh

Fort, a 19th-century fortifi-cation surrounding Kovno,

(Lithuania.

December 7, 1941: Japan bombs Pearl Har-bor and the United States de-clares war the next day.

January 16, 1942: Ger-mans begin the mass de-

portation of more than 65,000 Jews

from Lodz (Poland) to the Chelmno killing center.

March 27, 1942: Germans begin the deportation of more than 65,000 Jews from Drancy, outside Paris, to the east (primarily to Auschwitz).

July 15, 1942: Germans begin mass deportations

of nearly 100,000 Jews from occupied regions of

the Netherlands to the east (primarily to Ausch-

witz).

July 22, 1942: Germans begin the mass deportation of over 300,000 Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to the Treblinka killing center.

September 12, 1942: Germans deport about

265,000 Jews from Warsaw to Treblinka.

April 29, 1945: American forc-

es liberate the Dachau concentration camp.

June 6, 1944: D-Day: Allied forces invade Normandy, France.

April—May 1945: Adolf Hitler commits suicide and Germany surrenders to Sovi-ets and Western Allies

The Holocaust and WWII Timeline

Suffering by the Numbers

The most targeted groups in Nazi Germany: Jews, Roma (Gypsies), disabled people, and homosexuals

Up to 6 million Jews were killed

Approximately 7 million Soviet civilians were killed and 3 million Soviets were captured as prisoners of war (including 50,000 Jewish soldiers)

1.8 million non-Jewish Polish civilians killed

312,000 Serb civilians killed by German forces

Up to 250,000 people with disabilities were killed

Close to 220,000 Roma were killed

German ideology at the time included racial and ethnic superiority and the Third Reich therefore established concentration camps, euthanasia pro-grams, and medical experimentation on specific ethnic groups. At least 70 medical research pro-jects took place between 1939-1945 (exact number of those impacted by these experiments is un-known).

Between 1948 and 1951, almost 700,000 Jews emi-grated to Israel, including 136,000 Jewish persons who found shelter in Displaced Persons camps ad-ministrated by the Allied forces. Other Jewish dis-placed persons emigrated to the US and other na-tions.

20th Century Genocides

Map of SS-designated concentration camps and subcamps, 1933–1945. Each large dot represents the main camp with the smaller dots referencing subcamps. The original map is animated to show the ex-pansion of the camp system over time (Data source: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, Vol. 5 [2009]). —Alexander Yule and Anne Kelly Knowles

How Many Have Died in Other

Genocides?

Armenia: Between 1915-1923, 800,000 to 1.5 million Armenians, approximately

half the Armenian population living in the Ottoman Empire, were deported and sent on “death marches,” killed in brutal

massacres, or by mass starvation. By 1922, there were fewer than 400,000 that survived the genocidal campaign.

Cambodia: Under the leadership of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge killed up to three million people between 1975 and 1979. In an effort to establish an Ultra-Maoist

state, Pol Pot created re-education camps, forced labor camps, and imple-

mented rape and sexual violence (including forced marriage) as a way to control and subjugate the population.

Rwanda: Civil war broke out in Rwan-da in 1990, exacerbating ethnic and ra-

cial tensions between the Hutu majority and Tutsi minority. The killing peaked in the spring of 1994 when over 1 million

people were butchered.

Former Yugoslavia (Bosnia): Begin-ning in 1991, the former Yugoslavia be-gan to separate along ethnic lines. The independence of the republic of Bosnia

brought about a genocide perpetrated by Bosnian Serbs against Bosniak and Croa-tian communities. The war claimed the

lives of over 100,000 people.

Darfur: In 2005, the Government of Sudan, led by President Omar al-Bashir,

began a genocide against Darfuri citizens, slaughtering over 300,000 and displacing over 2 million. The conflict in this region

continues today.

Justice After Genocide:

After WWII, both domestic and international courts sought

to bring members of the Third Reich to justice.

Beginning in 1942, the Allied powers announced their in-

tentions to punish war criminals and offered a joint decla-

ration “officially noting the mass murder of European Jews

and resolving to prosecute those responsible for crimes

against civilian populations”.

Between October 1945 and October 1946, the International

Military Tribunal tried 22 high ranking SS officials on

charges of crimes against humanity and conspiracy to com-

mit such crimes. Twelve of the 22 were convicted and given

the death penalty, 3 were sentenced to life in prison, 4 were

given prison sentences of 10 to 20 years and 3 defendants

were acquitted.

In subsequent Nuremberg proceedings, between December

1946 and April 1949, US prosecutors tried 177 people and

won convictions for 97 defendants. While most would tout

the success of these trials, unfortunately many perpetrators

have still not been brought to justice and simply returned

to normal lives and professions in German society.

The quest for justice continues today.

Survivor Testimonies

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my

life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never

shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children,

whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.

Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never

shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of

the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my

God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these

things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.”

- Elie Wiesel, Night

“Our insistence on preserving memory has not prevented other gen-

ocides, but perhaps has served as a reminder for those in power,

making it harder for the killers to kill. It is clear that we must remem-

ber that which we would rather forget. But we cannot; we are not

allowed to forget. We must not participate in the murder of memory,

the ultimate objective of the murderers. “

- Professor Robert Krell, “My Journey as a Child Holocaust Survivor”

“After my father brought us to Vilna, the Germans killed him and deported

me, my mother and sister to the Stutthof camp. My mother died slowly of

hunger. When my sister and I were sent to be gassed, a German saved me,

saying, “Look at this rotten Jewish child; she has such beautiful eyes.” My

sister waved so I wouldn’t follow her. When the Soviets neared Stutthof,

two Germans with machine guns shot everyone in my barracks. Lying sick

on my tummy and weighing just 40 pounds, I felt the sting of two bullets in

my back.”

- Dora Goldstein Roth, Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Me-

morial Museum

“Just before I turned 6, we were sent to Auschwitz from the Theresienstadt

ghetto. There, I became #70917. I was separated from my brother and moth-

er and taken to a hospital where I was measured and X-rayed; blood was tak-

en from my neck. Once, I was strapped to a table and cut with a knife. I got

injections that made me throw up and have diarrhea. While ill in the hospital

after an injection, guards came in to take the sick to be killed. The nurse car-

ing for me hid me under her long skirt and I was quiet until the guards left.”

- Renate Guttmann, Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memori-

al Museum

Page 5 Volume 1, Issue 3

Mgrublian Center for Human Rights

The Kravis Center, 3rd Floor

850 Columbia Ave. Claremont, CA 91711

Editor-in-chief: Larissa Peltola ‘18, lpeltola18@cmc.edu

With special thanks to Mr. and Mrs. David and Margaret Mgrublian,

Professor Hilary Appel, and Kirsti Zitar

Not for re-print or publication without expressed written consent by the

Mgrublian Center for Human Rights.

Ways to Remember

The Holocaust in film: Films serve as a pow-erful educational tool and can be used to in-spire activism and advocacy. A few select ti-tles on the Holocaust include:

Schindler’s List

Sophie’s Choice

Life is Beautiful

Kapo

The Pianist

Train of Life

The Sorrow and the Pity

The Diary of Anne Frank

The Murderers Among Us

Shoah

Europa Europa

The Last Stage

Organize a Book Club or Film Series:

A great list of books can be found

here

Use Social Media

Share the life story of a Holocaust

victim through the United States Hol-

ocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM)

Upload a “Days of Remembrance”

photo to your Facebook

Share stories about victims or survi-

vors, facts or information on the Hol-

ocaust and WWII, or write a post.

Engage Your Community

Participate in the World Memory Project Create a “names wall” by inviting community members to select a name from the USHMM list of Holocaust victims (PDF) to add to a visual display

Encourage your mayor and/or governor to issue a proclamationSample Proclamation for Mayors (PDF) // Sample Proclamation for Governors (PDF)

Educate Others About the Holocaust! Check out great resources from the USHMM